VideoFly

The canopies that MEL relined for me came back better than they originally were. His work is meticulous .

MEL +1

It might be better to mount the risers to the front in case you need to release Capewells .

I recently planned to sell my container and had my rigger inspect it. He found some surface rust on the rings inside of the webbing and he grounded it. At my expense, I had the harness webbing replaced and had new stainless steel hardware installed. The rig was then in great shape with a new harness and rings. I also threw in a new d-bag, risers, and an altimeter. I then sold it for what I was going to originally ask. My rigger, the customer's rigger, and the customer were all pleased. Most of all, I was happy that a good rig went for a great price to a jumper who could appreciate it. It is skydiving gear. Either sell it in great shape or throw it away.

I broke my neck on a hard opening with cameras on. My helmet broke into pieces and my neck was smashed. My three vertebrae were replaced with bone from my hip and it was held together with screws and a titanium plate. The fusion healed well and I was able to jump again in six months. However, my hands and parts of my arms are paralyzed forever. While the bones healed, the damaged nerve stems and spine will not.

You may want to look at scuba knives. Many have large hook-like cutouts for cutting rope, serrations, and smooth blades all in the same blade. Rope and line cutting are immediate concerns for divers who may become entangled. Diving knives also come in very small to very large sizes with sheaths that can be strapped to almost anything.

Black licorice ice cream is the best.

Don't expect horizontal relative wind. It probably won't be there. Try not to fall on top of another jumper. Try to remain stable on exit. Stay calm and have fun.

My tinnitus was severe before ever skydiving and it is still severe. Most of my jumps are with an open face helmet and I don't think that skydiving has negatively affected my hearing problems. In time, like I have done, you may learn to enjoy the sounds of sitting in a springtime medow, no matter where you are.

Looks good for your experience and equipment. Eventually, learn to fly a winged camera suit, get less of a wide angle lens, fly the burble without crashing through the formation, and stay clear of potential premature deployments.

School bus repair.

Yes, my old Sabre, overbuilt helmet, Hi 8 video, and 35mm were heavy, but they weren’t crap. They were state-of-the-art back then. Just as new lighter equipment is state-of-the-art now. In ten years, video flyers may look at you and your gear as crap as they film in different and safer ways. Crap is a relevant term. Be safe and keep it all in perspective. My point exactly. Be careful. The gear you jump today may be considered prohibitively heavy in a few years. Any weight on your head can be a problem in skydiving.

What is more important? Using both hands to try to clear problems or using one hand to deal with a problem while the other hand with the camera documents potential disaster? When safety may be compromised, the video should be over.

Please remember that your neck, no matter how big, strong, ambitious, and cool you are is a weak link connecting your harnessed and suspended body to your mounted cameras. No matter how good a flyer you are, repetitive flying, landing, and canopy deployments can easily cause your skeleton to shield itself by growing spurs in an attempt to fuse the weak link on its own. The result may either be future arthritis or worse yet, on a whacker opening, a break in the linkage. Furthermore, please remember that the neck, linking the body and cameras, is a major thoroughfare for nerves, which enable lower body movement and control. In other words, two DSLR’s are heavy and FOR WHAT? Skydiving places inherent limitations on photography, which may be partially overcome by equipment modifications, but it is unwise to compromise your skeletal constraints.

I remember when RW was the thing and tandems were not all that common. I wore a heavy Bell and then a Headhunter with no cutaway and a permanent ring sight. With a Hi-8 and 35mm on top, big wings and Sabre I canopies, I looked at video from an artistic viewpoint. Yes, the gear tore my neck up with spurs that grew to make it look like the back of a Stegosaurus. At that time, not many people wanted to shoot video, but they sure respected what we did. Now, my neck is made up of hip bone and titanium and my hands don’t work well. Through all of the “good old days of video”, my son, a young dropzone brat, learned the meaning of video professionalism. Today, he still lives and works to those standards, only with a safer lightweight helmet and camera gear. I am glad he’s probably not banging his neck up with heavy gear and I am proud that he still reveres the standards of professionalism, which were once more commonplace. Lightweight camera gear is smart and safer. Additionally, wearing it does not preclude the responsibility for camera flyers to maintain professional standards while skydiving. It’s not the new lightweight gear that plagues the industry. Instead, it is bad attitudes.